Windmill



Jan. 1 1923. 1,442,307.

s. 1. S WANSON.

WINDMILL.

ED AUG-10.1

g M zzmwy.

S. J. SWANSON.

- WINDMILL.

Jan. 16, 1923.

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

FILED AUG. 10, 192!- Patented Jan. 16, 1923.

v UNITED STATES SWAN T. SWANSON,

PAT NToFF or s'r. LOUIS, MISSOURI, Assre'lvon or ONE-HALF TO"FRED H.

BLANKENHORN, or. s'r. .Lonrs, MISSOURI.

WINDMILLQV Application filed mi ust 10, 1921. Serial no. wipes;

To all whom it may concern 1 Be it knownthat SWAN 'J. SwANsoN, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at 110 South Tenth Street, inthe city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, has invented certain new and useful Improvements in Windmills, of which the following i a specification. v I

The Object of my invention is to produce a windmill with a plurality of sets of vanes which will subtract practically all theenergy from the wind that reaches the windmill and thereby raise the efliciency of the windmill to a maximum. Another object is to devise a means of automatically stopping the wind-mill from functioning when the wind attains a certain predetermined velocity. In other words, it becomes desirable in a storm or hurricane to revolve the vanes out of the path .of thewind in. order that the enormous wind velocity will not destroy the vanes and so that the useful Work that the wind-mill is made to accomplish. will cease during this period. For instance, if the wind-mill is made to'operate an electric generator which in turn is charging a storage battery, itbecomes. necessary that the speed of the, generator must be maintained less than a certain number of revolutions a minute. This speed will depend upon the:.velocity with whichv the wind-mill rotates.

Whenthe wind mill exceeds acertain velocity, therefore, it must become inoperat ve in order-to prevent the generator from operatingtoo rapidly. [This cessation ofoperation of the wind-mill must be acc0mplished automatically. My structure accomplishes this purpose. I

In addition, my structure is simple, economical, and lends itselfreadilyto multiple;

production, is made of few and simple parts, and can be readily assembled.

With these andother objects in view, my invention has relation to certain novelfea tures of construction and. arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more fullyrde scribed, pointed out in the claims and illustrated in the drawings in which Fig. lisaplan view, HM

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the vanes, Fig. 3 is a side elevation, and Fig. 4 is a fragmental sectional'elevation of .my t ripping' device. p

The wmdmill tower is not shown 1n the drawing s.- Numeral 5 designates a base 1,442,307 1 ice. '1

plate for'my device which is mounted conventional wind-mill tower. (Not shown.) A hole 6, is formed inthe center of the'ba se plate 5. Through this hole means (not shown) for securing the base plate 5 rota-1 tively tothetower are inserted. .An eye 7 is secured to the wire :8 and a cord 9 is se' cured in the eye ,7. The cordQ-leads to the bottom' of the tower (not shown) and ofifers means .(which will be subsequently described) for 'settingthe 'blades in operative position The upper end-lofthe wire Siis secured. to. the tripping mechanism'10, which will be-subsequently' described.- Numeral l'l designates a frame secured to the base 'plate 5' which. frame iscomposed oft'wovertical integrally with the standard 13. A hole, 16

standards 12 and 13 which are integrally 1" V is formedin thearm 15 ;"a hole 117 is'formed in the. vertical standardl3 and. a,l iole 18 is formed in the vertical.standardxl2. These three holes are of substantially the same diameter andin horizontal alignment; This isbestfshown in Fig. 3 A,tube 19' connects the holes ltiand ,alnd is secured to the arin l5 .and, the vertical standard 13. Numeral 20, designates a shaft to, which i at, its outer end is secured the lwheel [21, "having the spokes I22 and the vanes 23 secured to theend of the spokes: The shaft20 passes through the tube '19, .A bevel gearaeflhavi g the w hubjQA is secured to the shaft 20 between the vertical standards112an'd 13. Theend of the shaft 20 extendsfinto the hole Numeral,- 25 designates a second wheel- 'having'spokes 26am vanes27, the vanes being secured at theends of the spokes. The Wheel. 2-5 is mounted on .thetube 28- Whichfis slipped over the shaft 20 and through: 7 tube 1 Numeral 29 designates a bevelge'ar I havingthe hub 30 which bevel gearl' is' se-q i curedto, the tube 28 at its .inner 'end between the vertical standards l2 .and 13K The. tube 19fnnctionsasa journal box for the ,tube28 and the tube 28 functions as for the shaft 20. The hole 18 functions'asa journal boxforithe end of the shaft QUE-"It will beseenthat when the wheel21 is ro tated, the bevel gear 23is likewise-rotated Thebevel gears 23f and are in mesh with a journal be I and that when the wheel 25}is,rotated,1tlie i bevel; gear 29 isrot ated. I Numeral 31,.desigl v nates. a bevel pinion mounted on, a shaft32. l o

I wheel 25.

other.

.jection 35. I

normally held in a position parallel to the the bevel pinion 31. It will be seen that when the wheel 21 is moved in one direction, and the wheel 25 in the opposite direction that the bevel gears 23 and 29 will be moved in opposite directions and rotate the bevel pinion 31 in one direction. In order that the wind will operate the wheels 21 and 25 in opposite directions, the vanes 23 and 27 must be properly positioned relative each These vanes are rectangular plates secured to the spokes in the following manner. The vanes on the wheel 21' are positioned as best shown in Fig. 1, i. e., they are secured to the spokes near one of their longitudinal edges, wit-h the longitudinal edges parallel to the spokes and at an angle of substantially 45 degrees with a diametral plane passing through'the spoke which the vane in consideration is positioned. The vanes onthe wheel 25 are similarly positioned only atan angle of about 90 degrees with them. \Vhen the windimpinges the vanes in the outer wheel 21', it causes the wheel to move and is then defiected until'it strikes the vanes on the inner The direction of the wind is shown by the arrows in Fig. 1. In Fig. 2 all the vanes belonging to the wheel 21 are marked X and all belonging to the wheel 25 are marked 0. The arrows show the direction of travel of the vanes. The shaft 32 is direct connected to a generator (not shown) which does the work for which the windmill is designed. I

Numeral 33 designates a guide, which is rotatively secured to thevertical standard 12 by means of a shaft 34, which passes through eyes formed in the projections 35 on the standard 1.2. Numeral 36 designates a rod connectingthe sideframe elements of the guide 33 and extending beneath the lower.

frame element at'3'7. Numeral 3S designates a curled spring wrapped around the shaft 34 with one end in contact with the rod 36 and the other end fastened to the inner proly these means the guide 33 is wheels 21 and 25. v\Vhen the guide 33 is in its normal position, the wheels will be held parallel to the direction of the wind and not against it and will not rotate, i. e., the mill will not operate. The problem now resolves itself into establishing means bytvhich the guide 33 can be swung ninety degrees from its normal position and secured in that position until a' predetermined wind veloci'ty is reached when it must be automatically returned to its normal position.

Numeral 39 designates a finger secured to the plate 5- and protruding outward which limits the swing of the guide 33 to ninety degrees from its normal position.

Numeral 4O designates a rod rotatively secured in the vertical standards 12 and 13 at 41 and 42. An arm 43 is secured to the rod 53 upwardly.

.and the other to the hook 44 of the arm 43.

A rotation of the guide 33 thereby rotates the rod 40. Numeral 46 designates a pressure plate secured to the rod47 which rod is rotatively secured to the cross-piece 14 by the bolt 48 and terminates in a hook 49 at the opposite side of the cross-piece 14 from the pressure plate 46. 'The pressure plate 46 is normally held in a position parallel to the planes of the wheels 21 and 25. j A coil spring 50 is sccuredto the rod 47 at one end near the cross-piece 14 and on the same side of it as the pressure plate 46. The other end of this spring is secured to the cross-piece 14. The spring 50 is pressure graduated, i. e it requires-a definite pres sure to extend it. This spring holds the pressure plate 46 in its normal position. By making the spring 50 of a predetermined strengt-h, it will require a predetermined pressure and hence wind velocity'on the pressure plate 46 to move it from its normal position. A ratchet wheel with one notch 51, is secured to the rod 40. Two plates 52 and 53 are rotatively secured-to the rod 40, in spaced relationship with each other with theratchet wheel 51 between them. The plates 52 and are securedto each other attheir external ends by means of the rivet 54. The upper end of'the wire the cross-piece 14. This spring holds the plates 52 and 53 upwardly substantially against the cross-piece 14. Numeral 56 designates a hook rotatively' secured between tions engagesthe notch in the ratchet wheel 51 and terminating at its other end in the arm 58 which by means of the spring 55. is normally held against the cross-piece 14. Numeral 59 designatesa finger extending from the face end of one of the plates 52-01 coiled spring secured at one end to the finger 59 and at the otherto the arm 58 of the hook 56. The operation of my device is as follows. lVh'en the wheels are to operate, the cord 9 is pulled downwardly thereby rotating'the rod 40 and bringing the guide 33 to its operative position. v The cord 9 is then fastened to the tower near the bottom of the tower. When the wind pressure reaches the predetermined velocity at which it is desired to automatically stop the rotation of the wheels, the'pressure plate 46 is moved and rotated on the cross-piece 14 until it engages the arm. 58 which releases the pawl 57 from its notch in the ratchet wheel Numeral 60 designates a the plates 52 and 53 and terminating atone end in the pawl 57 which in one of its posi- V I 51 and I degrees.

permits the guide 46 to rotate ninety i What I claim and mean to secure by Letters Patent is: c y

- 1. In a Wind-mill, a base plate, a frame, said frame secured to said base plate, wheels rotatively secured on said frame, a pressure plate and meanslof automatically revolving f said base plate,- responsive to a predeter:

mined pressure on said pressure plate.

,2. In a indmill, a base plate, a frame;

said frame secured to said base plate, wheels rotatively secured on said frame, a guide rotativelyv secured to said frame, manual means of revolving said guide to an operative p0s1t10n,.a pressure plate rotatlvely se cured to said frame, and means of automatically revolving said base plate responsive to a predetermined pressure on said pressure plate. 7

automatically revolving said base plate to an inoperative position responsive to a predetermined pressure on said pressure plate,

by actuating said tripping. mechanism. I

. I11 vtestimony whereof I afiix my signature.

7 I v frame; sald frame secured to sald base plate,wheels rotatlvely secured in said ,frame,. a.gu1de I '25 tively secured. to said frame and meansof i v SWANJJSWANSON. 

